Thefirst-gen Chromecastlaunched back in July 2013 and was a game changer. It allowed you to stream content wirelessly from your phone or tablet to your TV and was a no-brainer for its price of $35. Even more impressive is that Google has regularly updated the dongle, with the last firmware arriving in November 2022. Ahead of the first-gen Chromecast’s 10th anniversary, Google has silently pulled the plug on its software support.
Spotted by9to5Google, Google silently updated itsChromecast firmware support pageto reflect that support for the 1st gen Chromecast ended in April 2023. Going forward, the dongle will no longer receive security patches or bug fixes. The company even warns that users “may notice a degradation in performance.” Google last updated the original Chromecast in November 2022 with some bug fixes and performance improvements. And even that firmware arrived after a gap of three years.
Considering the dongle has a paltry 512MB RAM and 2GB storage, users must already be running into performance issues. Nonetheless, the original Chromecast had a very good run for a device that was available for only $35. If you still use the original Chromecast, this change won’t affect you immediately. However, expect things to break or slow down further in the coming weeks and months.
If you were still using the original Chromecast and are now looking for an upgrade, the market isflooded with streaming devicesthat pack plenty of features while still being affordable.
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On the other hand, if you own the latestChromecast with Google TV(4K), you have a new software update waiting for you. The 140MB STTE.230319.008.R1 firmware bumps the security patch to April 2023 and packs “other bug fixes and performance improvements.” This is the second consecutive month Google has rolled out an update for the 4K Chromecast, with the previous build bumping the security patch to January 2023.
Many users report the new build is freeing up a considerable amount of space on their dongle, withone Reddit userclaiming the free space went from 730MB to 2.1GB after installation. The update is rolling out in batches, so it may not appear immediately for download on your Chromecast.
